Enbridge: Missing Coating Never Affected Line 5 Safety

Enbridge Energy says this year was not the first time some protecting coating was scraped off the exterior of Line 5. We have more from Michigan Public Radio’s Rick Pluta.

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Line 5 is the oil and gas pipeline that ships 23 million gallons of oil and gas on a route that runs beneath the Straits of Mackinac.

The company just alerted state officials that in 2014 engineers found anti-corrosion coating had rubbed off parts of the line. Ryan Duffy with Enbridge says the engineers did not think that information was important enough to share with superiors because the integrity of the line was not affected.

“This was never a safety issue – the safety of the pipeline was never compromised.” Says Duffy.

State officials say this is one more instance of Enbridge not sharing critical information and their faith is eroding that the company takes the safety of Line 5 seriously.

The state is ordering Enbridge Energy to take swift action to fix portions of the Line Five energy pipeline that runs beneath the Straits of Mackinac. As we hear from Rick Pluta, corrosion protections were eroded during maintenance work on the line.